Special Edition NYC 2015

ReedPop’s Spring Counterpart to New York Comic Con

If the current mania for pop culture is poised to plateau, there was no sign of it at this past weekend’s Special Edition: NYC.

The waiting to enter Special Edition: NYC 2015 on a rainy Saturday morning.

On the first drizzly morning of the two-day event, the line to enter the comic book convention stretched far beyond the entrance at New York’s Pier 94, extending from 52nd street up to 58th street, wrapping under the Joe DiMaggio Highway, and heading back downtown again. Event hawkers were handing out flyers for other comics conventions, including upcoming events in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. Once inside the venue for Special Edition: NYC, many fans spent much the morning waiting in line once again, this time to purchase tickets for ReedPop’s fall event, New York Comic Con.

One week after the ReedPop division of Reed Elsevier brought the second annual BookCon to New York, the company hosted Special Edition: NYC, also in its second year. ReedPop, which hosts several large pop culture conventions including New York Comic Con and Chicago’s C2E2, launched Special Edition: NYC last year as a comics-focused festival in the spring to complement the company’s larger New York Comic Con in the fall.

Comic book creators in Artist Alley at Special Edition: NYC 2015.

In its inaugural year, Special Edition: NYC was held in the Jacob Javits Center. This year the event moved further uptown to Pier 94. The location provided room for additional vendors of comic books and pop culture paraphernalia in addition to the extensive Artist Alley of comic book creators and two tracks of panel discussions. The expansion gave the event more of the vibe of a full-fledged Comic Con, while keeping the focus squarely on comic books rather than the larger universe of pop culture media.

The new venue presented a number of challenges. The two programming sessions were in curtained-off sections of the pier’s large, open venue. Sound leakage between the concurrent events was frequently distracting. The dim, diffuse lighting made photography more difficult than in the brightly illuminated north hall of the Javits Center that hosted the Artist Alley last year. Restrooms were in short supply, with long lines waiting for access.

As with last year, the centerpiece of Special Edition: NYC was Artist Alley where comic book creators met with fans, signed autographs, and sketched illustrations. A long, serpentine line waited to meet acclaimed writer Brian Bendis. Other noteworthy comics creators included Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont, longtime comics artist Ken Bald, Batman: Eternal and Intersect artist/author Ray Fawkes, cartoonist and My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic writer Katie Cook, and many others.

After the morning rain, the area outside Pier 94 served as a stage for cosplayers.

This year’s event also attracted a number of cosplayers. Once the morning’s rain receded, the open space in front of the pier provided a convenient stage for costumed fans to pose and photographers to capture the moment.